North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 08/16/1996

The. It's Friday August 16th. Tonight sampling the savory seafood of the calabash in North Carolina now. Good evening I'm reading it right thank you so much for joining

us for this Friday edition of North Carolina now. Tonight most of our program will focus on the coast by discussing the dangers of building on our barrier islands and by visiting a town famous for its seafood. But first if you're about to retire you no doubt have daunting questions that need answers. With retirement right now lasting 20 even 30 years you might be wondering what you'll do with all that free time. This may surprise you but many seniors are deciding to go back to work. Tonight Kelly McCann Ray takes a look at how seniors are volunteering their time and expertise to help the younger generation. If someone said you could retire right now would you do it. Many of us daydream about walking away from our jobs and doing absolutely nothing. Well before you get any ideas consider this. Many senior citizens who've done just that are finding out that the leisurely life is not necessarily the good life. In fact one of the first thing 63 year old alove awakens did after

retiring from more used to go back to work. She's been a demanding number of years at McDonnell Douglas in California negotiating government contracts for military aircraft. So when she retired to North Carolina three years ago she found life a little too slow for her tastes. You would obviously have a very busy career. I imagine that was difficult to not have to go to work every day. It was it was it took some getting used to and I'm not sure that I'm really accustomed to it as yet. So she decided to put her years of business experience to good use. She joined score the Service Corps of Retired Executives which offers free business advice and counseling. Omar Calle if you want to open up an Italian restaurant in Raleigh City Market. So he went to score for advice. Because I'm new to the area and I do know a lot of things you know but what you know about the how things work and all that stuff. So would score I get that going to help a lot of you help him draw up a business plan.

Gave him advice on leasing and cashflow questions and guided him through the maze of city and county permits required. She's one of 13000 score volunteers nationwide. We operate at no charge to our clients. Dave Wolf another volunteer worked in the chemical and manufacturing industries before retiring in North Carolina. We're supported by the Small Business Administration SBA pays our rent we have small office here in downtown Raleigh in Raleigh Chapel pays the phone bill and provide us with postage stamps everything else is volunteer so we look around stamps States time is estimated. During the 90s our senior population will jump 20 percent that means that by the year 2000 there will be nearly a mill. People spending their retirement years here in North Carolina. That is a huge resource pool of experienced workers to draw from. Because of that score volunteers say their organization should become more and more active in coming years.

We're going to be playing a more important role as we expand the economy. I think if you look at statistic 75 80 percent of all the jobs in this country are with companies that are less than 100 employees. So by some definition at small business that's what we do. We help small business school has certainly helped businesses like pizza. But interestingly the people who score seems to help the most are the volunteers themselves. I have enjoyed it because I grew up in the community and I can pass here and see what's going on quite often and are pleased to see the results of counseling. One entrepreneur. That is really what does me a lot of good. The SBA spends only five million dollars a year to support score which in turn serves thousands of clients across the country. These businesspeople say for their money. That's a

pretty good return on the investment. But perhaps the most valuable dividend comes in the lives of the volunteers medical experts say a key factor in living a healthy and happy retirement is motivation. Having a good reason to get up every morning. What this program does is give the volunteers an opportunity to share their wealth of experience and to help others a motivator if there ever was one. And for all of us straining toward retirement these not so retirees have agreed to let us in on a little secret that the goal of working is not to reach the end but to learn to love the journey. I know that what I do it's core it's sport. I can see it. If you would like to join score you can contact your local SCORE office or call the Small Business Administration. Still ahead in our program Dr. Oren poky joins us to talk about the importance of preserving North Carolina's fragile coastline. But first Christina Copeland is filling in at the news desk for Michel Louis who's on vacation.

Hello Chris. Thanks Merida. Good evening everyone. The leader of the state Senate says there needs to be a limit on the amount of time lawmakers spend in session in Raleigh. Senate President Pro Tem Mark Ballas Knight says his like to see an amendment to the state constitution that would put a cap on the number of days the General Assembly can legally meet. Over the past several years legislative sessions and beginning longer and longer as lawmakers haggle over budget deals. House Speaker Harold Brooks-Baker is also said he favors shorter sessions but he hasn't said if he would support a constitutional amendment. The deadline is noon Monday for written arguments to be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court on whether it should order North Carolina to draw new congressional districts before the November elections. Durham lawyer Robinson Everett is seeking to overturn a decision by three federal court judges that delayed the redistricting until next spring. The Supreme Court earlier this year will the black majority 12th District unconstitutional but left the decision on when to redraw new boundaries to the lower court judges. Well

three North Carolina universities are among the top 100 best bargains in higher education according to Money magazine. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill kept its position from last year as the sixth best college by North Carolina State University and Wake Forest University are the only other North Carolina schools on the list. Coming in at 99 and 100 last year Wake Forest was 25th and NC State was seventy fourth. The rankings are based on several factors including library resources S.A.T. averages and out of state tuition rates. Money magazine ranked Cal Tech as the top bargain at higher education. Beginning Monday they will be public hearings on proposed changes and fishing regulations. At issue are recommendations from the fishing moratorium steering committee suggestions include limiting the number of commercial licenses and creating a recreational salt water fishing license setting a point system for violators and possibly seizing vehicles in gear of serious offenders.

Another proposal would augment law enforcement with train citizen volunteers. For more information on the proposed regulations and a schedule for public hearings you can call 1 800 6 8 2 2 6 3 2. Final recommendations for the committee are due November 1st. Now looking ahead to tomorrow's weather it's expected to be a very pleasant Saturday across the Tar Heel State. Sunshine is in store for everyone and temperatures are expected to range from the mid to upper 80s except in the mountains where the mercury will only reach into the mid 70s to lower 80s. In business news the main airline at Raleigh Durham International Airport may be up for sale Midway airline says a group headed by Donald bird has expressed interest in the carrier. Burress the man who founded the low fare airline people express in the 1980s an industry publication reports the BIR has made an offer. The impact of the sale isn't known. Midway is the busiest airline it already you. But it hasn't been able to make a profit since it took over the former American Airlines hub nearly two years

ago. A drop in overseas sales of tobacco products has slowed the growth of North Carolina exports. Overall exports rose 5 percent in the first quarter but that's down significantly from the average of 14 percent the state has enjoyed since 1987. Exports of tobacco products fell nearly 30 percent. On the plus side exports of industrial equipment and machinery rose 31 percent and overall agricultural exports rose 17 percent. Now here's a look at what happened at Wall Street today. This coming Tuesday night on TV we will air a program called Living on the edge

it's about the hazards of owning property on a barrier island. Hurricane Bertha recently reinforced the caution that should be taken when deciding to build along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Living on the edge features an international expert on Barrier Island behavior Dr. Oren pill. The director of a program for the Study of developed shorelines at Duke University. Here's a preview of that program. When we think about graphic features such of the hill eroding we're thinking of the soil being removed from that hill getting smaller and smaller and eventually disappearing altogether. But in a Rhode Island is highly different matter. The sand that is removed from here is moved in this direction or that direction or maybe onto the island itself. But a healthy beach does not change its shape. It changes its position in space as part of the barrier island migration process. And joining me now is Oren pill King Dr. poky Welcome to the

program. Thanks for being here. My pleasure. Your portion of this program and I did get a chance to take a sneak peek at it deals with some clues that you give to people who are thinking about maybe building a home on any of our coastal areas and what they should be aware of. We can't talk about them all but can you give me just some highlights. You know we know a lot of things to look for now to tell whether your site your chosen site might be dangerous or that your relative danger and if you're close to the beach one of the things you do is go down to the beach and look and see if there's a scar a small cliff right on the dunes there is you want to you want to avoid that and I don't have a chance of having a seventh of a recent eroded on Shoreline you also want to avoid. Being right behind gaps you know gaps in the Doom are either made by a road or maybe natural doing gaps you want to avoid that if possible you want to be behind the dune if a tall possible Fundamentally though the most important thing are to look for elevation which is the most important thing. The higher the better. And

secondly look you should look for forest you ideally want to be behind bushes or trees to break the wind and when the big storm you had also talked about something it was though the 100 year flood plan or I don't have the name of it correct but can you give me the idea one of the things we recommended in this video is to go to the city hall and look for the the thema flood maps. They will have hundred year flood lines. They tend to be somewhat inaccurate but there in general are pretty good and you can from this immediately say whether you're in a dangerous but you do not want to be below the hundred year flood line. If a tall possible. You know in general are not in favor of building at all on barrier islands correct. Well that's right as I say in here I'd prefer. I would want to my loved one to live on a barrier island even if you have a very safe site and even if you have a high elevation lots of force and you still have to evacuate before a storm and that's the

dangerous aspect of living on on a barrier island. But we recognize that people are going to live in a variant of whether we or I approve of it or not. So the purpose of this video we got a lot of information of construction a lot of information on flight site selection and the ideas to help people make a wise choice a safe choice home site. One of the the items that the program does deal upon is of course you have the storm damage brought by Hurricane Bertha or any nor'easter is or whatever but there is still a natural process there of this being a very mo bile Island. Correct. Yeah these I guess can because true to be the most dynamic large pieces of real estate on the surface of the earth these things are really amazing the barrier islands are amazing they are capable of moving back in space entirely just pick themselves up and moving back in the process is that we that endangered buildings other processes that are moving these are in the

back and in a hundred year 200 year sounds. This is what the island does in response to a sea level rise it moved back in and these processes waves washing over depositing sand are the processes that we are trying to avoid with development but yet they are an essential part of the island evolution of the island migration process and sense that is an essential part of the migration process you are against any kind of building of sea walls or any type of growing scrub. Yeah hard stay what we call hard thing was they should see walls rock walls or something are actually illegal in state of North Carolina and the reason for that is because they eventually destroy the recreational Beach which is why most people go to the go to the island so we know that's one good thing about if you have to buy island property is one good thing about North Carolina is that we do have this regulation that will preserve the beaches for future generations is something we should be really proud of. There might be a viewer out there who's watching and saying well I live in the mountains or I live in the Piedmont I

don't have property on the coast Why should I care about this but as a taxpayer people who build along these areas of the coast affect all of us correct. Yeah. Pleasure for example is usually paid. It's very expensive. Like what's happening in Wrightsville Beach North Carolina's Carolina Beach North Carolina. We're dealing with you know 20 million dollars a shot that well the Panvel to get several million dollars a mile to replenish a beach in the long run and we pay for that we pay for most of that. Those of us who live in Omaha Nebraska so we should be concerned and of course we should also be concerned because of the threat to the recreational beach. I think it's very important we all agree that it's very very important thing that be for future generations. And you touched on a term there beach replenishment where that's basically taking sand from one area and putting it back over by the ocean side. Yeah. Generally speaking now it involves taking sand from offshore on the continental shelf and putting it up on the beach. This is one way of making a house a lot of

fight a lot safer. That's the official justification by the federal government is that the purpose of a beach replenishment project. It is to prevent storm damage or property in the storm or at least to reduce it and so it's good in that sense but it disappears very quickly every two to four years you have to do it all over again. So we argue we read. We recommend that you would be better off not being next to a replenished beach. For one thing you're going to have to pay the city sure of that so your taxes are going to be higher because I'm a doctor of just a very quick time left if there's one thing you want the viewers to come away with after watching this program what would it be true that your location carefully there are huge differences in the safety of different sites on the Barrier Islands and we hope that we can help you make a wise really wise choice on her own. Thank you Doctor and Cokie thanks for being here. And we want to remind the viewers that living on the edge airs this coming Tuesday night at 9:00 right here on you when see TV.

Tucked into the extreme southeastern corner of North Carolina is a little hamlet whose reputation far exceeds its size its calabash well known for its seafood and Bob Garner takes us there. To arrive in calabash well before dinner time so you can enjoy strolling out on the docks along the calabash river. This is where a lot of people go to buy shrimp so fresh off the boats by men like Tommy and Robert Leggett owners of 75 this direct commerce is less expensive for the

customer and more convenient for the shrimpers build up a business here for about 20 some years and just makes is a lot less handling as you know I don't have to take them to fish markets and what have you to do. You know yesterday here's just a little bit every day instead of a lot of billions a week. But buying shrimp or checking out the boats is usually what you do as an appetizer. Perhaps while waiting for your name to be called by one of the four restaurants located right beside the water the first seafood restaurant in calabash didn't open until 1935 and it was a rough wooden building with a sawdust floor. Today more than 60 years later there are over 20 seafood restaurants here and the very name calabash has become synonymous at least in this part of the country with seafood fried to a light golden brown. Now was is the third oldest seafood place in Calabash. It opened around 1950 and for a long time the same family not only ran the restaurant but owned one of the oldest and best known boats in the area. The Miss calabash today is

run by Cheryl Hardy. Her son Kurt and one daughter. Everybody's related. You know the early families of the first five restaurants they started their own brothers and sisters and it's kind of just went on from there. And with the bustle of Myrtle Beach in the Grand Strand just a few miles away business is humming with had the best season ever we've ever had here this year and I don't know if that's because motivates the economy or whatever but things are going great. Kurt Hardy says the secret to the color and texture of Apple his calabash style seafood is that it's first moistened with a baffle rated milk which apparently rich in the colored then lightly floured before being deep fried. This is what calabash style seafood is all about. This is a deluxe seafood platter that they serve here at Ellis and lots of other restaurants and Calabash. There's quite a variety of items on here. There are flounder shrimp devil crabs oysters and scholars. And boy is it spectacular. And of course with

any calabash style seafood dinner you have to have a dab of tartar sauce. Just put that right there and a little bit of seafood cocktail sauce. Now we're already over the years the tradition has been that you can feel safe ordering oysters in any month that contain the letter R. However with today's techniques of storing and handling food you can order them anytime and they're usually delicious like they are here along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico you find huge shrimp with the tails still attached that are dipped into a batter and then deep fried. But calabash style shrimp is they've come to be called all over are smaller. They're much more lightly breaded. They are deep fried but with much more fresh fresh face. Absolutely fantastic. Now as most of you know this is what's called a deviled crab. The crab meat is picked out of the shell then mixed with bread crumbs and spicy seasonings

mixed all together and put back into the shell. Definitely one of my summertime favorites soft shelled crabs or simply crabs that have shed their hard shells which usually happens in the spring in summer. I've even had these in sandwiches with the legs dangling out the side. Makes a funny looking sandwich. But man is it great. Now these Alaskan snow crab legs obviously aren't local. They're from Alaska. But any self-respecting seafood place in North Carolina has to have them nowadays. Here in L.A. They do a wonderful job with that for the maximum effect. You have to dunk these and drawn butter. All right. That it's wonderful. Then my series on barbecue you've heard me talk about a lot of hushpuppies But of course hush puppies were originally invented

to go with seafood. This is where they're most at home and these are delicious. Whether you choose Alba's or one of the other 22 seafood restaurants in calabash you'll have a wonderful meal. You'll soak up some authentic coastal atmosphere and you'll understand why this little hamlet bills itself as the seafood capital of the world. Calabash is located just off U.S. 17 about 15 miles south of Shiloh to watch for the signs just before you cross the South Carolina border on the North Carolina. Delegation to the Republican National Convention is headed home after a rousing sundial from San Diego. Presidential nominee Bob Dole's speech last night left a strong impression on convention goers including alternate delegate William Peasley of Kerry who has been sending us his thoughts on the convention via computer e-mail in his final letter he calls Dole's speech perfect for the Times and says Dole touch the heart of every delegate he adds. The

speech was followed by a rally with a balloon drop confetti and a band and lots of yelling. It was a great experience although a little uncomfortable. The convention hall became very warm with so many people. I believe the convention was a great success the right messages were conveyed. The foot soldiers are now pumped in Bill Clinton only has four more months. Those were the words of alternate delegate Bill Peasley in his letter home. If you would like to see more delegates letters you can find them on the Internet at w w w one dot PBS dot org slash NewsHour slash convention 96. And Mr. Pease Lee's letter is also on the U.N. CTV website. W w w dot you and CTV dot org. And by the way we will be receiving letters from a North Carolina delegate to the Democratic convention in Chicago beginning August 26. That's a program for tonight and for the week Have a great weekend and please make plans to join us on Monday as we begin another week up North Carolina now. Good night everyone.